


The Zodiac AU

by tobeflyhaikyuu



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series), Thomas Sanders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-05-10 06:51:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14732033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tobeflyhaikyuu/pseuds/tobeflyhaikyuu
Summary: Long, way too long ago, a pact was made. Between ancient entities also known as the Zodiac. This pact was made to protect the dead souls and their paths for the afterlife. Back then, there wasn’t much that threatened that balance, it was more like a couple of souls getting lost and needing guidance. But the evil would eventually come and the Zodiac needed to be around for it. To do so, they immortalized their own souls, thus they could live on for generations, and continue their jobs.And the evil came, somewhere during 2016, long after the bodies of the first Zodiac had turned to dust. Their souls were transferred to unborn babies, fetuses.





	1. part one

**Author's Note:**

> This AU is based on an idea I had for an original story and no - there is no romantic subplot here, sorry. But I hope you enjoy the story!

_**Long, way too long ago, a pact was made. Between ancient entities also known as the Zodiac. This pact was made to protect the dead souls and their paths for the afterlife. Back then, there wasn’t much that threatened that balance, it was more like a couple of souls getting lost and needing guidance. But the evil would eventually come and the Zodiac needed to be around for it. To do so, they immortalized their own souls, thus they could live on for generations, and continue their jobs.** _

_**And the evil came, somewhere during 2016, long after the bodies of the first Zodiac had turned to dust. Their souls were transferred to unborn babies, fetuses.** _

Virgil woke up, panting, the back of his feet kicking the bed. His purple bangs clouded his field of vision but the soft blanket in his hands where an indication he was in a bed. In his room. The images he had seen in his dream… they seemed too real to simply be part of a nightmare. There was nothing particularly scary about them but the immediacy of everything… it made Virgil want to puke.  

Checking the clock on the nightstand, Virgil felt his eye widening as he saw the green marks showing it was 3:17 am. He’d have to be up for school in five hours and that didn’t give him nearly enough time to rest. Especially when he always took so long to fall asleep.

He sighed, before getting off the bed and walking down the stairs to the kitchen. Getting some water and stretching his legs a little bit could be helpful. It was his reasoning, anyway.

Arriving at the living room, he turned left to the kitchen behind the counter. He got a cup from the drawer and poured water from the tap. And just as he was about to jug it all down in one swift movement, he heard a voice.

It was faint and barely audible at first. When he couldn’t make out what it said, Virgil shrugged and drank all his water. But before he could put the glass on the sink, the voice came back.

A lot louder this time.

“Virgil…” It called. Desperate and afraid, the voice mirrored part of how Virgil had been feeling.

Gripping the glass tighter, Virgil had to stop himself from adding any more pressure, or else he’d break it. Instead, he left it on the sink with a ‘clink’ sound as it hit the metal and he ran up the stairs again. He was halfway through them when-

“Virgil!”

He stopped dead on the spot, the floorboard under him cracking under his unmoving weight. He froze except for his head, which he turned to face the wall nearest to him that held a picture of his closest friends. Patton, Logan and Roman smiled back at him from the frame. Patton’s smile was wide and full of teeth to show and Logan’s was a half smirk while Roman’s had the cockiest of them all. That picture was good to calm him back down and he continue walking to his room.

But then the voice resurfaced and it kept yelling, as if the volume could somehow make a giant hand and grab Virgil to keep him from leaving, it was that insistent on it. The voice wanted Virgil, and it seemed like it was going to get him, however way it could.

Running the final steps, Virgil shut the door and locked it in a hurry as the voice continued. He slid his back against the door as if the pressure he made alone could keep anything at bay. When he wakes up again for school, he doesn’t remember how long he spent like that but he does remember how terrified he was of going back to sleep. Of how he had stared at the ceiling after the voice had ceased, only waiting for it to come back.

Yet it never did.

Five hours later, Virgil had bags under his eyes that almost looked like purple pigmented eyeshadow. Normally he put black eyeshadow everyday, just because it was his Aesthetic. But now, it hardly seemed necessary.

His dad knocked on his door early, prompting him to get up and leave for school. After getting dressed with a black t-shirt, grey hoodie and dark blue pair of converse, Virgil went rapidly into the kitchen to grab a piece of toast and ran out the door with it in his mouth and a quick “see you later, dad” to the man.

As he made his way to the bus stop with his toast, someone came from behind him. They wrapped their arms around Virgil and that was a big indicator of who it was for him. Turning around, Virgil saw Patton with cat gloves on his hands and gave him the smallest of beams.

“Hey, Pat.” He greeted, eating the bread as they continued walking.

His friend used mostly pastel colors from his feet up - a light blue t-shirt, caqui jeans and open brown shoes. It contrasted with Virgil on a high level. Virgil found it to be true that opposites attracted each other, since Patton was his best friend.

“VIRGIL!!” The boy snuggled his Virgil’s arm for a second.

“Today we have a test, don’t we?” He questioned as they reached the destination.

Patton didn’t reply right away. Instead he leaned in closer to Virgil, brown eyes squinting as if he was examining the boy’s face. His glasses fell down to the tip of his notice, he didn’t bother fixing it.

“Why didn’t you sleep?” was what he said instead.

And there was the dreaded question. Virgil couldn’t just say ‘hey yeah, so yesterday I heard these… voices, even though there was no one in the house awake except for me and they creeped me out a little bit so I didn’t sleep because of that’. He was certain Patton’s first question would be if he hadn’t just had a nightmare. The boy wouldn’t rule out Virgil as crazy or psychotic or anything of the sort and Virgil knew that. Regardless, he still felt uneasy about telling the truth when it sounded so… unlikely.

“I have insomnia, Pat.” He replied with something that was actually true, pulling his backpack up on his back. “You forgot already?”

“No! But you never had bags like this before.” Patton insisted, with furrowed eyebrows. “I’m just worried.”

Looking at his friend fondly, Virgil replied. “I know you are, buddy, thanks. But I’m alright.”

It seemed to pain the boy to do so but as he pouted, he answered. “If you say so.”

“So about the test.” Virgil changed the subject. “Did you study?”

“I had to ask Lo for some help, but I think I got everything.” Patton smiled to himself proudly while the bus arrived and parked, opening the door for them to get inside.

The boys went straight to the backseat, where most of the students avoided because of the bumps in the road that made the back of the bus jump a little. But Patton had fun with it and wherever he went, Virgil would go as well. No matter how mentally exhausting that managed to get.

The bus ride consisted of Patton telling him about the latest animated voice he saw. This time it was a japanese anime Virgil had never even heard of. Because he only knew were some Ghibli movies and Koe no Katachi. But he made a mental note to try and watch Patton’s when he had the time, it actually sounded interesting.

After finally getting to school grounds, Virgil was reminded that they hadn’t been there for the last two weeks. Spring vacation was over and the terror of exams and social pressure would restart.

“Virge?” Patton tugged at his coat, making him get back to reality.

“Yeah, let’s go.” He almost sped walk to class as he had anything to get away from.

“You guys got luck.” Logan greeted them from one of the seats in the front, never leaving his eyes from the book he was reading. This one wore a dark blue t-shirt and black jeans with red converse.  “Our teacher had an emergency, having to leave for the day. A substitute will be here in a moment.”

“Alright.” Virgil replied nonchalantly, throwing his backpack on the floor behind Logan’s chair and sitting on his own.

Patton took his sit next to Virgil and leaned in to peek at Logan’s book. It was their history material.

“Lo, are you revising the whole unite?” He questioned. “That’s five chapters!”

“Yes.” Logan agreed.

“I’m pretty sure you were here when the teacher told us which chapters to look at.” Virgil remarked.

“I was, but I was also studying biology at that point.” Logan pushed his glasses into place. “One of my strongest subject is History, I needed to diverge that focus to Biology instead.”

“Well, if you say so.” Virgil shrugged just as Roman appeared at the door.

He was panting and trying to catch his breath. Key word, trying. His eyes looked eerily similar to Virgil’s as well - tired and mostly devoid of energy.

“And whatever happened to you?” Virgil covered up his snickering as the boy sat in front of Patton. Yet his heart might suffered a little from seeing the boy in such state.

“The bus,, missed my stop,,, and I had to run,,, two miles… Just to get here.” He let out a big sigh, letting his arms dangle from his body while keeping his legs close together because he was still A Gentleman.

“Awww poor, Roman! I’m sorry you had to go through that.” Patton sympathized.

“He didn’t get run over by any cars so he’s fine.” Virgil scoffed, waving it off

“Virgil-” “Aren’t you a ball of sunshine and positivity.” Roman pouted, rolling his dark brown eyes.

“Just pointing out something obvious, Prince Charming.” He teased back. “You know what, I-”

Right then, the substitute teacher arrived. She had grizzly gray hair with a young unmarked by wrinkles face. And everything about her, right down to the outfit - light brown pencil skirt, black high heels and white social shirt - seemed professional. The contrast was weird but her voice was also firm and disciplined.

“No more talking, the test starts now.” She spoke in front of all the desks. “No cellphones and definitely no cheating. I will know if you do.”

She started by the other side of the room, distributing the papers.

“Scary woman.” Roman whispered to Virgil, knowing he was the only one of the boys that would agree.

“Terrifying.” He replied with his signature smirk. “Good luck, Princey.”

“You too, Dark Magee.”

Found/Tonight by Ben Platt and Lin-Manuel Miranda played on Virgil’s left ear and he shared earphones with Patton. His friend sang along, not too loudly. But Virgil’s mind was elsewhere. It kept replaying the events of that night, detail by detail. And this time, not even music managed to help him.

“Virge, what’s wrong?” Patton stopped, while Virgil continue, making the earphone dangle from Patton’s side. That made him stop as well and turn back.

“I’m good, Pat.” He replied.

“Falsehood.” Patton said, using Logan’s expression. “I wouldn’t call myself your best friend if I really believed that.”

 _Dammit, Patton._ Virgil thought to himself.  _Why did you need to be so insightful?_

“But I am.” Virgil pushed.

“Not.” Patton pushed back.

“Does that stop you from walking home with me?” Virgil gave him a pleading look.

“NEVER!” His friend went to him and linked their armstogether as they continued on their path. “But you know you can talk to me about anything, don’t you?”

“I do.” Virgil nodded and gulped. “I just need to work out some stuff first.”

Patton stared at him for a couple of minutes before letting his head fall on Virgil’s shoulder. “That’s understandable.”


	2. part two

Roman had lied about the bus missing his stop. The truth actually was that he overslept.

You know when you’re having a really bad nightmare and no matter how much you want to wake up… you just don’t? Roman didn’t get free until 8:09 in the morning and he was already supposed to be at school. His parents worked early so he always woke up with an alarm but not even that had managed to end his nightmare.

He had opened his eyes, breaking into a sweat, already out of breath and terrified of something he couldn’t name. All he could remember was a line of floating balls of light in the dark. And they all called out his name at once - a million voices echoing, taunting him, inside his brain. It haunted him for the rest of the day.

He did run the two miles he said he did and that certainly added to his level of tiredness. And how wonderful was it that he had to focus on a History exam! Though it wasn’t one of his worst subjects so he figured he’d be fine.

After the exam was over, he walked with Logan, Virgil and Patton for a block until they had to go into separate directions. Virgil and Patton had gone right while he had continued forward with Logan.

“How did you do with the exam?” Logan started the conversation when the silence filled their empty space.

It made Roman slightly jump in surprise. “Relatively well, I think.”

He goes over the questions in his head, wondering if he had been specific enough. One thing he noticed about most History teachers he’s ever had was that they liked precise answers. That didn’t mean knowing the exact year something happened though, and for that he was grateful. His memory was not that powerful.

“And you?” He went on to look ahead and avoid eye contact.

Logan pushed his glasses up his nose and smirked. “Very well, I must say.”

“I forgot that I was talking to Ultra Nerd.” Roman rolled his eyes but smiled back.

“Roman, you seem rather… disturbed today.” His friend stared at him with mild concern. “Is everything uh… gucci, with you?”

“It’s all spectacular my friend!” He forced himself to put on his best facade, with his usual heroic posture and a bright smile on his friend.” Why would it not be?”

“Your strange behavior of today is all I have to go on.” Logan twisted his lips into a half frown and his eyebrows to the center of his face.. “I have what one could call… a presentiment about this.”

“Well that sure is new coming from you.” Roman teased, as they got to his house. “But i am in fact, just Gucci. With a capital G! I will you see you later, my friend!”

Logan hummed, the suspicion he held confirmed by the insistent half frown and furrowed eyebrows from before. Roman prayed that he wouldn’t push the matter and he did not. The boy instead nodded and crossed the street with a “see you tomorrow”. They lived across the street from each other and when Logan closed his door, Roman let out a breath. Lying to his friends to this extent was excruciating but he didn’t want to seem like he was weak. It had been a simple nightmare, such a small thing should not be able to stifle him like that! And he refused to fall victim to it, to acknowledge it anymore.

His parents would take a while to get home so he had the house to himself. It was honestly a relief coming to an empty house every day, and especially that day.

What he needed in that moment was to get some chocolate, throw himself on the couch and put on Cinderella. A beautiful tale, a princess that believes in her dream so much that they come true! Virgil likes to be a killjoy and say that she never did anything to get her dreams come true and simply waited for the prince… Roman always pretended not to listen.

So he did all that and managed to forget about the terrifying experience from earlier. That was, until he got a call on his cellphone. The ID showed Virgil’s name.

“Hello, Emo King.” He greeted.

“Could you-” The boy groaned. Roman imagined him breathing in and huffing it out. “Could you drop the teasing nicknames for a second? What I need to talk to you about is kind of important.”

If it hadn’t been for the tone of urgency in Virgil’s voice, Roman wouldn’t have taken it seriously. But he sounded stressed, desperate. How Roman had felt just a few hours before.

“Sure, Virge.” Roman sat straight on the couch. “What is it?”

“Tell me the truth, alright? Because… uh, man I am freaking out on my own and if you lie to me… I don’t think I’d be able to process that.” Virgil’s voice broke at the end, almost as if he was starting to cry. Roman was more than just surprised by that, it was a surge of emotions and the prominent one wanted to protect Virgil. “So you need to promise me.”

“Virge…” Roman said. “Whatever it is, I promise I won’t lie.”

He heard Virgil’s sigh before the actual reply came. “First, what actually happened to you this morning? Was it really just the run to school?”

Out of all the questions Roman had imagined Virgil would make, that one hadn’t even been on the top five. But he had promised he wouldn’t lie.

“No. That wasn’t all of it.” Roman answered. “I had a nasty bitty gnarly nightmare.”

“What about?” Virgil questioned.

“I don’t remember!” Roman was the one to groan this time. “I have one specific image in my head from it but no context whatsoever.”

“What image?”

“It’s this… line of floaty neon things in the absolute dark.” Roman explained as best as he could. “They were absurdly white and called out to me, my name, a hundred voices at the same time…”

The other end of the line was silent for several seconds. Roman called Virgil over three times until he got a reply.

“Sorry, I’m just… uh…” He stopped again. “Just give me some time, I’ll call you back.”

Then there came the ‘beep beep’ sound. Virgil had hung up. Roman stared at his phone for a long time after that.

“What the freezeling hell just happened?” He said to no in particular.

He dialed Virgil’s number again but reached the voicemail. Now that just seemed unfair! He called Roman and had him spilling out his guts and now made him wait like that? Oh no, he would not.

Jumping up the couch, Roman ran out the door. Virgil’s house wasn’t too far, maybe a forty minute walk if he bordered on running. But he would’ve gone even if his house was on the other side of town, he would’ve just gotten a cab then. Something had been really wrong with his friend on the phone.

He tried calling a second time on his way there but again with the voicemail. This time he actually left a message.

“Virgil, what is even happening, can you tell me anything? Please call me back, i’m worried.”

Arriving at the house, Roman walked under the porch and knocked on the wooden door. The person behind it was Virgil’s father. He offered Roman a genuine smile and slid to the side to let him through. Thanking him, he announced that he’d be going to Virgil’s room.

Knocking on the bedroom door, Roman pushed it over as he called for the owner. “Virgil?” He tried before noticing that the boy curled up in a corner.

Virgil didn’t take notice of Roman barging in, he was trembling, sweating. Roman mentioned to touch him but back away remembering that it might not be a good idea. Anyway, he didn’t need to touch Virgil to see that the boy was shaking. He was having an anxiety attack, Roman had seen quite a lot of those from Virgil.

“Virge? Can you hear me?!” He called and the boy nodded ever so slightly. “I’m going to get you a glass of water, try moving around until then, please!”

Roman ran down the stars to the kitchen. Virgil’s dad had been watching the TV but didn’t see Roman at all. He instead hear the sound of water running and ice clicking on the glass but didn’t turn back.

Trying to avoid getting water all over the stairs, Roman went up it as fast as he could. Virgil was still sitting on the corner, but opening and closing his legs back and forth, paying extreme attention to the movement. Roman poked him to give him the water.  

Virgil never took his eyes off his legs while he drank the whole cup. That on itself helped, but taking Virgil’s heart rate from his pulse, Roman knew the attack was far from over.

He sat down next to Virgil and just stayed silent for a while.

“Can I hug you?” Roman said, tentatively opening his arms.

His friend hesitated for a moment before nodding quietly. Roman embraced him from the side, being careful not to make any too sudden movements.

“It’s going to be okay, big old friend.” Roman whispered, running his hand on Virgil’s arm. “You’re going to be good.”

All Virgil could do at the statement was nod. Not particularly in agreement, Roman knew, but just to indicate he could still listen.

Roman had to send a message to his parents that he’d sleep over at Virgil’s. They didn’t mind him doing that kind of thing as long as he warned them where he was.

At some point during the dark night sky, Virgil seemed to have calm down. And now Roman didn’t want to bring the subject of nightmares again because he was 98% sure that’s what trigger his attack in the first place. But Virgil brought it up for him.

“I freaked out.” He spoke after the long silence and buried his head on his hands for the next part. “I had a nightmare too, thought it had nothing to do with yours as far as I remember. But that’s not the issue. It’s… You said you heard voices calling for you, your name.”

Roman nodded, curious as to where that was going.

“I went through the same, but… uh not in the nightmare. I… I actually heard voices calling me at night, after I- after I woke up from my nightmare.” Virgil puffed his cheeks with air and released it at once. “I had planned on telling you all this on the phone, but then I hung up because of the attack. I’m… I’m sorry.”

“You heard voices?” Roman wanted to make sure he heard right.

“Well, it… uh, it was only one. But it echoed and it was loud…” Virgil closed his eyes. “I didn’t get much sleep.”

“The purple mask was a dead giveaway friendlio.” Roman commented.

His friend huffed back. “I figured… You’re the only one I told this to. Not even Patton knows.”

“Bu-But why not?!” Roman left the bed, with arms outstretched in Virgil’s direction. “He is the least judgy out of all of us, Virge.”

“I know, Roman. But Patton… he… He wouldn’t understand. He’d give me love and support and that’s all pretty great but… He wouldn’t understand it.” And then in Virgil’s answer, Roman figured out why he was the one he told all this to.

Falling back to the mattress, Roman felt pretty relieved himself. Even though what Virgil had gone through could be considered substantial more terrifying, it was good to know that he wasn’t alone. And that maybe his nightmare hadn’t been just that.

“Thank you, Virge.” He blurted out, making Virgil shoot his head up to him.

“Are you kidding me?” Virgil raised an eyebrow. “You just helped me through an actual anxiety attack and you’re the one saying thank you? Doesn’t that sound a little backwards to you at all?”

“Just take it, Emo King, learn how to take appreciation!” Roman pulled his arms from up his head down to Virgil’s front.

“You’ve used Emo King today before.” Virgil smirked, teasing.

“I wanted to make sure you had registered it!” Now he crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s good that you did.”


	3. part three

Had it hurt Patton that his best friend didn’t want to confide in him? Sure. Would he let that make him mad at Virgil? Nossir, never. Even more so when he hadn’t exactly confided in him either.

Going to bed the night before, Patton looked out his window to see the world outside. Where he lived the sky was usually very clear and you could always see the stars at night. It was Patton’s favorite part of the day aside from any other when he was with either Logan, Roman or Virgil. He could just sit on his bed and watch the sky for hours like that.

Except for that time.

Because…well it wasn’t natural to see fire burning in the sky now, was it? Fire couldn’t be up there in the sky like that! There was just too many wrongs there. And Virgil was the most skeptical person Patton knew. Going to him and telling him about that experience would just make the boy go ‘Patton, I’m pretty sure it was just your imagination. You do have a pretty vivid one.’ And that wasn’t wrong in itself, but in that context, it would just made Patton feel… invalid. He was sure that wouldn’t actually be Virgil’s intention, but it would happen.

So when Virgil had told him he needed to work out a couple of things first, all Patton could say was, “That’s understandable.” Because to be fair, he needed to do the same.

“I’ll tell you about it, Pat.” Virgil had ruffled Patton’s hair gently. “I promise.”

Patton knew that Virgil was used to him initiating contact first and never complained. But for him to touch Patton without any invitation was… not new, but rare. It meant that he wanted to reassure Patton of something serious.

“No need to force yourself, kiddo.” Patton had replied, straightening up his posture. “Just know I’ll be here for whatever.”

“I would never dare forget.” Virgil smiled a little. Yet, Patton could tell it was more out of gratitude than genuine happiness.

Getting to their street, they said goodbye to each other before going to different sidewalks and going inside their respective homes. Patton’s mom greeted him from the kitchen, already preparing dinner. He walked over to her, give her a kiss on the cheek as well as a big old hug. Then he proceeded to go upstairs to his room. It was unusual of him to want to be alone. At that moment, though, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to be so happy and bubbly around other people.

The sky was still light blue outside and the sun was just starting to set. Patton didn’t want night to fall. He got afraid of that fire the same way he always gets scared when he sees spiders.

He closed the curtains on the window and jumped to his desk. He had some fun with the desk chair which turns a full 360 degree, and then thought about talking to someone. Opening his laptop, Patton went straight to Facebook. The person he wanted to talk to was online and he took a deep breath before clicking on their name.

Lo? He sent when the chat opened.

Yes, Patton? Logan replied in a matter of seconds.

Fire in the sky. Burning up there. That’s impossible, right? Patton’s finger hovered over the the enter key as he stared at his message for a long while.

Logan didn’t send any more messages as Patton pondered. Logan wasn’t cruel, he wouldn’t just stop talking to Patton for asking that. Would he? It was a stupid, stupid question but Logan could handle it. Right?

Patton decided not to overthink it. He’d get very sad if he did it so for too long. After maybe two minutes of pondering over the matter, he finally pressed enter.

Three dots appeared on the chat, indicating that Logan was typing on his own computer. And whatever he had to say was long because the dots took more than just a few seconds to disappear from view.

It is possible, Patton. If you have a human up there, maybe in an airplane or any sort of flying mobile, with heat and any objects to fuel it with. It is how rockets are propelled to leave our atmosphere to reach outer space. We have enough oxygen in the sky for it, or else we would not be breathing at his precise moment. Why do you ask?

Staring at the screen, Patton sighed. He had phrased the question wrong, or just needed to add a few things. Like the part ‘without anyone having set said fire’. But at that point, he had lost the courage to ask. Entirely.

Just read something, Lo. Patton sent. Wanted to be sure that it was right.

Well, I appreciate I am your source for these type of things.

Thanks, Lo.

And with that, Patton logged out. If Logan had anything else to ask, he didn’t want to answer it. Not in that moment. He also wouldn’t have gotten the chance even if he did want to. His mother called him downstairs not even a full minute later.

“Coming!” Patton shouted before running down the stairs.

She told him a friend from school came to visit right before she had to leave for work. Patton was barely turning left on the hallway to get to the living room when she closed the door. And he didn’t know who he was expecting there - maybe Roman, Logan or Virgil -, he was friendly with a lot of kids at school. But who he saw sitting on the couch was not someone he had seen in school before. Yet he might as well have, because he looked pretty much like Roman. And Logan, and Virgil and himself.

“Uh…” Patton positioned himself in front of the stranger, unsure of how to proceed.

In turn, the boy sitting down stood up and extended his hand towards Patton for a handshake. “Hey, I’m Thomas and I have a lot to tell you.”

“Alright, but how…. How exactly do you know me?” Patton questioned, hesitantly returning the handshake.

The boy was unfamiliar, someone he never met, much less spoke to before. Patton was vaguely aware of the fact that he should’ve probably have kicked him out at this point. But he was also wary of doing it. He didn’t like being rude or violent towards people.

“Long story.” Thomas sighed. “But I can get to it if you really want to know.”

Patton nodded, sitting down on the couch. “Yes, I do.”

His guest sat back down and closed his eyes for a moment. “Alright.” He opened them again. “You do know what the Zodiacs are, right?”

“The signs? Yeah.” Patton furrows in eyebrows, not sure what that had to do with anything.

“They used to be entities, powerful gods of sorts. Very long ago” Thomas started with a slightly different voice. Patton thought he sounded like a fairy tale narrator. “And they guided the spirit of the dead to either hell or heaven. That was their sole purpose, what they were born for. And when they died, well, their souls were transferred to unborn children and once those died, the cycle repeated.” His voice changed back. “So what I’m trying to say is… You are one of the Zodiac. You have one of their souls. And I kind of need to find the others, with your help.”

There was a moment of silent which Patton used to process the words that had just been said to him. And unlike any of his close friends, he did not have the natural instinct to distrust people or doubt the information they gave out. So he figured, why couldn’t what Thomas said be true? He decided he want to at least listen to him.

“I have some questions.” The boy nodded before saying.

“Fire away.” Thomas shot back.

“Which Zodiac am I?” He asked.

His guest played with his bottom lip for a minute. “I’m still trying to work that out.”

“Why don’t you know?” Patton cocked his head to the side. He figured if Thomas knew everything else…  
“There was something… wrong. With this last transfer of souls.” Thomas replied with a sigh. “I’m usually the one who keeps track of everything but for some reason, this time, I couldn’t. And I am having a lot of difficulty trying to find all of you and it is frustrating. The only thing reassuring me now that you are one of the Zodiac, is the fact that you have the aura.”

“The aura?” Patton’s eyes widened.

This sounded a lot like fantasy stuff to him. The type of books he usually got from Logan to read. Not that he didn’t enjoy it…

“Kind of difficult to explain, but it’s your imprint.” Thomas tried to explained. “Kind of like a thumb print but in your body shape.”

“I can’t say I understand that.” Patton furrowed his eyebrows.

“I barely understand it myself buddy.” Thomas gave a small smile. “We’re in this together. Any more questions?”

“Are you a Zodiac?” He continued.

“Yes.” Thomas nodded. “I have Taurus’ soul.”

Patton stopped for a second. He’d asked everything he wanted to know mostly. Except for one question, and it was probably the one that freaked him out the most.  
“Why do we look alike?” He spoke after a moment of silence.  
“Ah, yes. Well, the original Zodiac were siblings. Twins.” As Thomas spoke, Patton let that sink in. Twelve twins? His guest noticed the wary expression and continue. “Yes, all twelve of them, there was some magic involved- it doesn’t really matter right now. But when one souls gets a face, the others get that same face as well. It makes it easier for me to find everyone.”

“Why you?” Patton inquired.

Thomas waved it off, his face looking like that of an exhausted man.“Long story, it’s for another day.”

“Ok…” Patton bit his own lip, unsure if he should say the next part. It took him less than two minutes to decide there was no harm. “But, if we’re all supposed to look alike, I think I can tell you were 3 of the other Zodiacs are.”


	4. part four

Out of all the boys, Logan was the only one who had dismissed his paranormal experience entirely. What he had gone through that night… well, it had been forgotten by the time he was waking up for school.

When Virgil was hearing the voice, Roman was having the nightmare and Patton was seeing the fire in the sky, Logan was seeing the symbol of the Zodiac wheel burning onto his ceiling in the middle of the night. The sizzling sound was what had woken him from his sleep and it caught him off guard. He had punched the mattress in a reflex after seeing the image. It had spun with increasing speed up there and Logan was petrified enough that he was physically unable to move after that one punch. Yet it was very dark during that time at the night, and Logan’s eyes were fighting with themselves to simply stay open. He fell back asleep too easily for someone who had just witnessed such thing. When he woke up, the occurrence had seemed like one wild improbable nightmare, as well as blurry. And if asked about it, Logan wouldn’t be able to say it had been the Zodiac wheel. An odd thing for a guy who prided himself for having an impeccable memory.

It wasn’t until Patton asked him about fire on the Facebook messages that he started recalling the details of the experience. Associating the word burning with the symbol he saw at night was a connection Logan didn’t took long at all to complete.

Thanks, Lo. He stared at Patton’s last message.

Wanting to keep said conversation going, Logan started typing on his keyboard’. He missed the change in Patton’s status that said he was offline and hit send:

You are welcome, Patton. Would you like to talk about anything else or was that all?

When he saw his friend was gone, his heart sunk in his chest. Yet the memory of the Zodiac wheel burning on his ceiling remained. And if confused him, who had even put that symbol up there anyway? And now that he looked up at his room’s ceiling, there was nothing. No residue of the wheel, no evidence that once actually it had been there. Though something inside Logan told him it had happened, it had been real. He usually didn’t trust that “feeling” that some called instinct, or a gut feeling. With no data or any concrete facts to back it up, how could he? Logan learned to not rely on memory alone from a young age. Yet this was uncanningly persistent. The more Logan tried to reason, the more it nudged back at him from inside his mind.

The image was something he would rather forget about and that feeling made such wish an impossible one.  
Oh well… He thought to himself. I’ll just go do my homework then.  
Doing that, he decided, should be a good distraction.

Logan proceeded to bury himself in two giant textbooks and two different notebooks, one for each of the subjects he needed to study. He had to get 3 pages of questions done for the next week, he had five days left to do so. And while some people, like Roman - for lack of a better example -, tended to tackle their school tasks at the latest time possible, Logan liked to get started and finished early.

Considering the assignments had been given to the class exactly on that day, early he was. He got around to answering all the questions by the time his parents got home. That was around eight pm.

It took him longer to do everything then it normally would have if his mind hadn’t been on Roman. On Roman and how uncharacteristically he had behaved for that entire day. Aside from getting to school late and sweating, he’d also snoozed in class multiple times, fidgeted with his fingers all the time when he was awake, and zoned out during their conversations repeatedly. All that piled on top of the conversation Logan had with him right after school, on their way home.

“But I am in fact, just Gucci.” He had told Logan right before he noticed how tired Roman’s face seemed. That’s when he realized that pushing the matter wouldn’t haven been effective. “With a capital G!”

He debated on whether or not he should call him to converse with him about now. Maybe he had calmed down and was ready to confide on a friend. There was a list of pros and cons to calling that Logan he made on his yellow legal pad.

Cons:

-It was getting late

-Maybe he had not, in fact, calmed down yet

-Logan had no idea if Roman was in amist of doing something important

-If the call ended up going to voicemail, Logan would just hang up because he wasn’t comfortable talking to a machine

Pros:

-If said call was answered, Logan would get to talk to his friend and possibly see what had gotten him in such a strange mood

Logically, three cons outweigh the one pro. Emotionally… the story was different. One pro was reason enough to get even someone like Logan to dial the numbers.

Roman pick up in less than a minute.

“Logan?” He questioned on the other end. “You’re really calling?”

“Hello to you too, Roman.” Logan replied. “Yes, I have called you before Roman, I’m not sure why you are so surprised. And frankly, at the moment, this is an issue I am not concerned about.” He stopped for a second to breathe. “I am still puzzled by your strange behavior this morning and evening, and as a friend, I would like to offer support for whatever struggles caused such change.”

“I- at -ogan?” Logan heard a faint voice in the background, he believed it to be Virgil.

“Extend my greetings to Virgil as well.” He acknowledged it.

“Yes, Virge, it’s Logan.” Roman’s voice sounded distant for a second, returning to a louder volume when he talked to Logan. “Nothing passes you by, huh, Glasses Nerd?”

“I am just observant and concerned, that is all.” Logan ignored the strange nickname.

“Well, old friend, it’s a little bit complicated.” There was a sigh. “And it’s the reason why I’m with Virgil at his house at the moment. But we need some time to figure this out. Can I get back to you later about it?”

Nodding to himself, Logan responded. “Surely, I can wait. I appreciate the early notice. Have a good night, both of you.”

“You too, Lo.” Silence reigned for another second. “Virgil is asking me to tell you a good night from him as well.”

“Thank you. Goodbye.”

Logan was the first to hang up.

He could be patient, surely he could. He had no reason to be concerned for Roman with so little information about his situation, or Virgil’s. Waiting to be fully worried… Logan could definitely do that. Or he could’ve have…

The memory of the burning Zodiac wheel was now stuck in his head and he felt (ugh, he felt) that it connected to Roman and Virgil’s problem somehow. And that… that was disconcerting, not to mention just plain uncomfortable to think about.

A message on his phone came a few minutes later after the call. At first Logan thought good, something else to distract me. Yet the text he read just added to his list of ever growing concerns. It came from Patton and it read:

I need to talk to you and the others tomorrow. Can you meet us at the Mcdonald’s near school at 2 pm?

Us. Patton wrote ‘us’ instead of ‘me’. Did the us mean him, Virgil and Roman? He had even talked to them already? Maybe it was just the standard message for all of them. But if that was the case, why not just make a group chat? It was easier and spared him the time to text the same thing to three different numbers.

What did he even need to talk about with all of them on a Saturday afternoon?

If it were any other day, any at all, the questions wouldn’t have bothered him. But because the burning symbol, Roman’s strange behavior, Virgil with a similar problem and Patton acting too serious all happened that day, Logan couldn’t help but feeling uneasy.

There were a lot of things wrong. Plain good old wrong. And he had no idea how to fix any of it.


	5. part five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From this point on, characters that aren't Thomas' will appear, the first being Jealousy. I needed twelve characters and Thomas doesn't have that many, so I used some OCS of mine, I hope you enjoy!

Thomas had expected a lot more resistance from Patton. Lord only knows how much trouble he had had while trying to get Remy and Jealousy to believe him. He had to actually show them his power and when that didn’t work, he used the vision. Showing them what happened all those years ago and the importance of everything… it was exhausting for him and disconcerting for them. It had left both boys quite distressed and Thomas had hoped to avoid doing the same with Patton. The feeling just grew after seeing him in person and talking to him for those first two minutes. Thomas had thought that he was… innocent, and sweet. He had been surprised but relieved beyond belief when all Patton had to say to his claims was ‘I have some questions’. They all always had questions, Thomas - Taurus’ spirit - knew how to answer to everything. It was all good.

But the best part was when Patton said he might know where three of the other Zodiac were.

“Wait, back up a bit.” Thomas shook his head, trying to process the information. “You have three friends, that look just… exactly like you?”

“Yup.” Patton giggled. “A lot of people think we’re twins. All four of us.”

Putting his hands up to his cheeks, Thomas was hit with even more relief. He felt his whole face relaxing and his eyes lighting up. “You are my savior.”

He had seven out of twelve, that was a good ratio. More than the half. Still… maybe he should be hesitant in counting Patton’s friend until he actually saw him and their auras. A lot of people look alike, that happens, nature is weird. Even if they do all seem similar, his friends might not be part of The Zodiac.

“Well…” Thomas decided to voice his concern. “Maybe not just yet. Do you think I could meet them soon?”

With a small pensive pout, Patton pulled out his phone from his jeans and showed it to Thomas. “Tomorrow is Saturday, I could ask them to meet us somewhere.”

“Good!” He nodded frantically. “Do that, please, Patton.”

Patton nodded as well, only once and and in a firm manner, and turned to his phone. In two minutes, the three messages had been sent.

“I should tell you though…” Patton bit his lip, avoiding Thomas’s gaze. “They may be hard to convince of all of… this. Logan is very logical, he will need actual proof to believe any of it. Virgil is used to second guessing everything people tell him and Roman… well Roman is just very stubborn. And he tends to side with Logan and Virgil when they talk to people they don’t know.”

Thomas sighed, all the relief from earlier going away. He did not want to use the vision again, yet it seemed like he would need to.

“Alright.” He finally spoke again after the moment of silence. “I’ll find away, Pat. Don’t worry.” Then he turned to Patton realizing something. “Wait, can I? Call you Pat, I mean.”

The request got a huge smile stamped on Patton’s face. “Of course!”

Thomas relaxed a bit seeing it. “Okay. Thanks for everything, Pat. It was really easy talking to you, I appreciate it a lot.”

“No worries, friendo.” Patton replied.

“I should get going.” Thomas announced, standing up. “I met you guys tomorrow, where?”

“The McDonald’s near the park.” Patton went after him. “Let me open the door for you!”

Thomas nodded, thanking him as Patton did the action. “See you tomorrow, Pat.”

Patton waved as Thomas walked out. “Bye bye!”

Leaving the house, Thomas pull his phone to called for an uber. The car got at the address in five minutes and Thomas got inside. Soon he was back at the motel he’d been staying in with Remy and Jealousy. He’d picked one he could afford, obviously, and it wasn’t much… but it was comfortable enough. And one room had space for four people, if you just happened to have a mattress to put on the floor. Remy did.

He wanted to pass through the lobby unnoticed. It was a good thing only the receptions were there at that time at night. They said a cheery “good night” and Thomas replied with the same tone and a smile but didn’t stop for more chitchat.

Getting out of the elevator, he hoped he’d find both of the others inside the room. Because if he had to go after Jealousy… he had to pray he wasn’t too late.

He knocked on his room’s door. Remy and Jealousy should be there. Both of them. Not only one or the other-

Remy was the behind the door when it opened.

The room had a bed, a bathroom, a small rounded table and a chair. Thomas had pictured Remy laying in bed, probably scrolling through his phone cause Thomas hadn’t let him be anywhere else for the time he spent away. He sighed in relief that at least he didn’t wander off.

“Thomas, man!” Remy stepped aside and left the door open as he walked back inside. “Did you find the guy?”  
“His name’s Patton and yes, yes I did.” Thomas closed it behind him and proceeded to throw himself on the bed. “He told me he might know where three others are.”  
“Ohoo.” Remy smirked. “That should be fun.”  
“You and Jealousy need to come with me to meet them tomorrow.” Thomas sighed. “Speaking of which, where is Jealousy?”

“Mr. Grumpy is playing at the arcade downstairs.” Remy shrugged sitting on the chair. “He said he was feeling stressed.”

“Oh my god…” Thomas groaned with his hands over his nose and mouth as stood up again. “Remy, if you decide to leave, please let me know first, I need to stop Jealousy from killing someone.”

“Aw, do you really have to?” The boy whined.

Thomas simply stood at the door and raised an eyebrow at him. It was enough to get the message across.

“Fine.” Remy sighed. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Thank you.” Thomas nodded before leaving.

The arcade Remy mentioned was just across the street. And at this time at night, it was usually crowded. Thomas hadn’t known Jealousy for all that long, but he knew the boy had a temper. Oh, was that hard to deal with. But Thomas was good at it, somehow.

He sped walk to the other side of the street and into the arcade, his eyes scanning for the boy with a mage-like cape. Thomas found him standing by the air hockey machine, in a stance that made it seem as if he was ready to kick it. And not just once or twice. Running, Thomas got to him in time to put himself in between the boy and the machine. Jealousy stopped his already launching kick before he hit Thomas in the left knee.

“None of us have the money to pay for that, Jealousy.”  

“Thomas.” He huffed, turning his face away and slowly retrieving his foot. “You were taking too long, it was stressing me out.”

“I was gone for an hour, at most.” Thomas argued, pushing Jealousy’s back away from the air hockey in his usual gentle manner. “But c’mon, we need to track down the others.”

Jealousy rolled his eyes but didn’t fight when the gliding doors of the arcade closed behind them. Thomas continuously pushed the boy across the street and into their hotel. The receptionists stared at both with rigid expressions as they tried to suppress laughs. Jealousy ignored those but Thomas sent them a nervous smile before they got to the elevator.

“Why do you insist on making this harder, Jealousy?” He asked him once they reached their room.

Remy was sitting on the bed, scrolling through his phone with legs crossed over the sheets. He mumbled a yo towards without bothering to look away from Tumblr.

“Take off your shoes.” Jealousy gnarled at the boy as he ignored Thomas, pointing at the sheets with his head.

Thomas walked past them to the bathroom. Remy ignored Jealousy’s words.

“Hey asshole.” He tried again, getting closer. “I am supposed to sleep on those sheets, can you please take, of, your, goddamn, dirty, shoes?”

“No fighting! And mind the language, Jealousy!” A shout came.

“I’m sorry.” He let out through closed teeth, still staring at Remy which widened eyes.

At this, Remy sighed, pulled his shoes off with the tip of his toes, putting them close to the window. All without actually leaving the bed.

“Thank, you.” Jealousy shot, sitting on the chair Remy had used a couple of minutes before.

The atmosphere after that, if you asked Jealousy to describe it, was tense. Well, he himself was tense. And Thomas taking so long on the bathroom wasn’t helping. Remy refusing to look up from his phone also wasn’t helping. Jealousy fidgeting with his own fingers helped the least of all.

He was in a hotel room with two strangers because one of them had told him he had the soul of an old god inside him. Thomas had told him he believed it to be Scorpio’s soul. Jealousy had no idea what that meant. And the images in his brain, the ones Thomas showed him, still haunted him. It had been a week since they had met and since Thomas sent him down that journey to the past but to Jealousy, it still seemed like it had happened just mere hours ago.

And he still hadn’t given them, either Thomas or Remy, his real name.

Jealousy was the name he went by online, the name he chose to go by on Tumblr. It was just so… human, to be jealous. People are always wanting to achieve or have what others achieved or have.

When Thomas left the bathroom, Remy was on the verge of falling asleep. Jealousy stood up and clapped his hands loudly to wake him up. If he had to be present in mind while Thomas did his tracking, then so did Remy. All the while, Thomas grabbed his laptop from the bag he had lying at the foot of the bed and took the chair.

Remy fumbled with the streets at the sound of the claps as his head shot up and it hit  the wall behind him. “Ouh..” He message the bump, leaving the bed to stand behind Thomas and next to Jealousy.

“How are you finding us, again?” He questioned, staring at the laptop.

“It’s nothing in there, Remy.” Thomas giggled. “If it were that easy… oh man, I’d love that.”

“Then, how?” Jealousy insisted, pointing at the laptop next. “And what are you doing there?”

“Just seeing how we’re going to get to the address Patton gave me.” And indeed, Thomas had opened the Google Maps tab. Once he got the information, he shut the laptop and sighed, staring at both his companions. “You already know that I can sense whenever you guys are nearby. All of us can, you guys just haven’t tapped into that yet, anyway- Today with Patton was just plain luck. I was going to the supermarket this morning and there he was walking with someone else. I thought I felt something from the other kid too, but I couldn’t be sure, with them standing so close to each other. I saw where Patton went and went it after a few minutes. This makes me feel like a stalked, immensely, but I didn’t really have any other plan.” At this, Remy and Jealousy looked at each other, both thinking that yes, that did sound stalkerish.

Thomas continued. “With you two, that was a lot harder. The thing is, the Zodiac can be anywhere in this country. Or maybe not, maybe their families moved, but hopefully not. Either way, we were all born here, in the US. So I use maps.” Digging into his bag again, Thomas pulls out rolls of paper, spreading them on the table. “I found you two in Indiana, now we’re in Florida where there’s at least four of us, and now I gotta see where we go next.”

Staring at the map, Thomas started tracing the states with his fingers, from both hands. “Problem is, I can only narrow it down to states.” He continues. “From there… it’s just plain dumb luck.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jealousy spoke, a little bit too loudly, making Remy flinch.

“Nope.” Thomas sighed. “It’s better than when I -well, Taurus- could only narrow down to directions, areas, and not places with borders.“

With a forced smile and unblinking eyes, Jealousy sat on the bed. “Isn’t this perfect?”


	6. part six

Virgil’s POV

“Did you get that message?” Virgil had woken up to the sound of his phone vibrating on the nightstand. He rolled from one side of his bed to the other, stretching out his arm to grab his mobile. The light from it almost blinded him awake and he noticed the two text messages he’d received. One was just his mom letting him know she’d left for work and the other…

It was Patton’s.

Being 1 pm on a Sunday afternoon, he felt relieved there was no school. And then he remembered he had his friend sleeping over on the floor (on a mattress) and he nudged him awake with his foot.

Patton wanted to meet them all at a McDonald’s. But who was the ‘us’ of the message? Had he gotten a response from Logan before he sent out the message to Virgil and Roman?

The latter woke up with Virgil’s nudge and he shoved his phone in front of Roman. The boy squinted his eyes after rubbing them to read it.

“Tomorrow’s today right?” Roman inquired.

“Yeah.” Virgil put his phone into his back pocket as he stood up. Yes, he had slept in his jeans. “And in just half an hour too.”

“I might need a change of clothes.” His friend sat up on the mattress.

Virgil waved it off. “You’re fine. We should get going.”

“It’s a five minute trip there by car, we can wait, Virgil.” Roman shot.

“And whose car are we going to take,Princey?” Virgil glared down at him. “My family only has one and my mom’s using it for work.”

Roman grunted, throwing his head back. “Why does she work on Sundays?!”

There was a shrug. “It’s the shift she took. Now come on, it’s hot outside but the clouds are all grey, it might rain soon.”

Pouting, Roman stood up and followed Virgil out of their room. “That’s no way of getting me motivated to walk.”

Virgil ignored this.

They walked out of the house, to the sidewalk and all the way to the McDonald’s across their school in silence. As they made their way inside, Virgil felt the sweet chill of the air conditioner enveloping him. He scanned the place for Patton and found him sitting on one of the tables with the couches clued to the wall. But he wasn’t alone.

“You see the guy, right?” Roman whispered, leaning towards Virgil.

“Yeah.” He sighed, getting closer.

The man’s eyes followed Virgil as they widened. He had had a friendly smile on his face before but now it had turned into… a relieved one? Virgil couldn’t be sure.

He didn’t sit down, staring at Patton and Roman stood in front of him, speaking. “Who’s that, Pat?”

Patton waved it off, patting the couch. “He’s a friend but sit down, friendos, please?”

Hissing, Virgil squeezed his own hands. “Why is he here?”

So that’s the us Patton meant in the message.

“And where is Logan? You called him didn’t you?” Roman questioned, sitting in front of stranger.

“I did!” He checked his phone. “He sent a text ten minutes ago saying he was coming.”

“He should’ve gotten here by now…” Virgil grimaced, crossing his arms over his chest.

“He’s close.” The stranger replied.

“How the heckity heck do you know?” Roman pointed at them, accusingly.

And that’s when the doorbell rang, Logan walking in. The only indicator for this was when Patton’s eyes lit up. Virgil turned around in time to see their friend notice the stranger besides Patton.

“I did not realize we would have a guest.” He acknowledged, standing next to Virgil.

The guest smiled. “I’m Thomas.”

“Nice to meet you, Thomas.” Logan sat down. “You can call me Logan.”

At this, Roman side eyed Virgil who did it back. Their friend didn’t seem to be suspicious at all and Patton… well, Patton was with the stranger.

“Pat, my friend, care to explain-“ Roman gestured to the entire table. “-this to us?”

Patton looked up at Virgil with his eyes online, pouting in a plead. “Please, sit down, friendo?”

Sticking his head up, Virgil fought the idea. But it was Patton asking! Yet, it was also a stranger he wanted Virgil to talk to, or at least listen to. He didn’t want to say no but he also didn’t want to put himself in such an uncomfortable position.

Goddammit, his anxiety was kicking in again.

“One minute.” And he rushed to the bathroom.

Luckily, it was empty. The establishment wasn’t too packed.

Leaning against the door, Virgil started hyperventilating. And then he pulled air in, this lasted four seconds. For the next seven, he held it in and for the next eight, he pushed it out. He repeated this but his heartbeat didn’t fall back to a normal rate.

Anxiety is a bitch.

Still resting against the door, Virgil was pushed by it when someone wanted to go in. Virgil barely moved but the person pushed further and passed through the crack. They gave Virgil and annoyed look before going in the stalls. They left giving him the stink eye too.

When the door opened for the second time, minutes later, he shuddered. He knew it was his own fault for going straight to the bathroom, but Virgil really wished people didn’t need to pee and poop so bad. Yet, the face he met with was a familiar one.

“Virgil, we are worried.” Logan walked towards him. “Are you okay?”

Holding his own arms and pushing them against his chest, Virgil hissed. “Anxiety.”

His friend knelt down next to him. “Did you bring your medication?”

Virgil shook his head.

“This is unacceptable, Virgil, you know you have a condition and the medica-” Logan stopped himself, shaking his head. “I can lecture you later. For now, breathe with me. Come on.”

“It didn’t work before.” Virgil let out through closed teeth.

“It can now, breathe with me, Virgil.” Logan replied, breathing in and waiting for him to do the same.

The boy complied in a matter of seconds. Breathing and out with Logan’s count… He’d been doing it too fast before.

Virgil had no idea how much time passed by but Logan never looked at the clock and no one else entered the bathroom. As he calmed down, Virgil noticed Logan had sat on the floor now. At some point, his friend crouched down and sat on his own butt, but Virgil hadn’t noticed before. Maybe the fact that he did now was a sign that the attack was going away.

“You are not obliged to talk to Thomas if you don’t want to, Virgil.” Logan caught his attention again. “If it is anything of importance to you, we can pass on the message later.”

“Really?” The idea pleased Virgil, the knot in his heart slowly loosening at the thought of escaping the odd conversation.

“Of course.” Logan adjusted his glasses. “I will just have to let the others know.”

All Virgil could do next was nod.

As they existed the bathroom, he continued on whereas Logan stayed behind in their table.

“Virge?” Patton called after him, making Virgil stop in his tracks.

“Let him go, Patton.” Logan sat down and lowered his voice for the following part. “Is it of so much importance that he stays? He was having a anxiety attack in the bathroom.”

At this, Virgil crossed his arms over his chest again, squeezing his arms. He stood with his back to all his friends and the stranger calling himself Thomas, refusing to look back at them.

“Oh.” Patton’s reply came out with a small and cracking voice. “Oh… I, Virge, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to-”

“It’s fine, Pat.” Virgil replied, shaking his head. “Don’t worry. I’m just- I’ll be going home.”

“Virgil.” The new voice spoke before he could keep on walking. “I’m really sorry. I never meant to put you in this position. But I do need to talk to all of you, or at least let you know about this.”

“I told him I’d pass on the message if it was relevant to him.” Logan interjected.

There was a single second of silent. “Is it.”

“Kay, then Logan will tell me about it. Now, I’m going.”

Roman’s POV

“I really do apologize, I had no idea-” Thomas’ was cut off by Logan.

Meanwhile, Roman’s attention was still at McDonald’s front door which just had been closed behind Virgil.

“You had no way to know, it is not your fault.” He spoke. “Patton however…”

“I’m sorry!” Patton put both his hands over his nose and mouth, letting some tears fall. “I- What Thomas has to say is important and Virgil needs to know, I didn’t mean to pressure him…”

“And what is this important thing we absolutely must know?” Roman heard the bitterness in his own voice while he still looked at the door. It was only when he finished the sentence than he turned to them again. “”What exactly is it that we need to pass on to Virgil?”

Now, for the first time since he sat down, he properly took a good look at Thomas. And with Patton sitting right next to him… he managed to see the similarities. And they were far from being few.

Ever since they knew each other, people always said Virgil, Patton, Logan and himself looked exactly the same. Like twins. At the beginning of the year, they’d been asked if they were, in fact, by at least ten different people. So Thomas could be the fifth twin. That was an eerie and slightly creepy thought.

“Yes, well…” Thomas rubbed the back of his neck. “It’ll all sound very… impossible and just, hm… like fantasy? I’ve known this since the day I was born so I’m not sure how it sounds to people without this knowledge but, Patton told me you three, including Virgil, tend to be skeptical of things.”

Logan and Roman glanced at each other with this. Roman though Logan was just logical, he believed in things as long as he was giving a good enough reason to and himself? He figured there could a… beyond, but he figured he’d need evidence of that too. But Virgil, he was truly skeptical.

“Okay, so what is it?” Roman encouraged.

Thomas proceeded to ask them about the Zodiac.

“The star signs?” Roman questioned back.

“Yes, we are familiar with it.” Logan added. “What precisely is the point?”

Sighing, the man continued. He told them about the entities with the signs’ names, saying they used be the gods whose souls travelled to unborn babies once they died and that they that happened each time the new body withers away. Thomas said he believe Patton, Virgil and them to be carrying those souls now.

With his last sentence, a long silence followed.

Logan was the one to break it. “That does sound rather… too fantasious. What evidence to you have that any of that is true?”

“Well, Taurus’ soul resides in me. I have all the memories from their previous lives in my head since birth.” He some air out through his mouth. “But I understand that the words of a stranger are hard to believe.”

“Not to me.” Patton pointed out.

“No offense, padre, but you believe in things too easily.” Roman shot.

His friend shrugged. “I just figured, what’s his reason to lie about any of this?”

“Maybe it is not completely lies.” Logan added. “Maybe he actually believes all this to be truth.”

“I’m here.” Thomas cleared his throat, leaning into the table. “And no, I’m not delusional.”

“Excuse me.” Roman stressed the first word with sass. “Sorry if that’s our take away from all the things you just told us. I, personally, am a big fan of mythology but I never believe any of the stories to actually be true. No one does.”

“This isn’t mythology, that’s the thing.” Thomas replied. “They’re just myths.”

“Myths are just that, myths and untrue stories.” Roman snapped back.

“Not necessarily.” Logan said, earning him a disbelieved glance from his friend. Logan proceeded to explain. “The word myth comes from the Greek word ‘mythos’ which roughly translated to ‘word’ or ‘tale’ or ‘narrative’. The ancient Greeks believed all their myths to be true.”

“Roughly.” Roman repeated, pouting. “And ancient greeks. We’re modern americans, Logan.”

“I am merely correcting you in the meaning of a word.” His friend rested his elbows on the table and his chin on intertwined fingers. “I am still skeptical as to how much of this tale is true.”

“I can show you.” Thomas offered.

“How, did you have a camera with you in every reincarnation?” Roman stick his tongue on the inside of his cheek, raising his eyebrows.

There was a bitter laugh. “Not quite.” Thomas leaned into the table even more, hesitating as he reached out to touch Logan. “Can I?”

“Do what, exactly?” The boy asked.

“Show you, everything I just told you.” Thomas pulled him arm back. “It’s not a pleasant experience though.”

“I am still very much confused.” Logan commented. “How exactly would you show me anything?”

“Putting my memories into your brain.” Roman stared at Thomas as he said this. “I have no other way to explain it.”

“I don’t know about you two,” Roman pointed to his friends, “but I can officially say this is my weirdest day ever.”

An expirated sigh came from Thomas. “I’d love to say that I understand and leave you alone because this is something hard to process. But I really can’t. I need you and the other 5 zodiacs.”

“What for?” Patton said something for the first time since vouching for the stranger. “You never told me this part.”

With this, Logan and Roman stared at Thomas, waiting for an answer. He lower his head and gave them a tired glance.

“We are tasked with protecting mortals’ souls.” He started. “Guiding them towards their path, ever since the beginning. And some things, some other beings, tend to try and prevent us from doing that. They are literal chaos. If the souls don’t get to where they belong, they become corrupted. And being corrupted means they haunt the living. And haunting the livings almost always ends up with them going insane. So you can imagine if say… a hundred souls get corrupted. That’s bad. But we take care of all souls. From all around the world, each and every day. Well we’re supposed to, something happened with this last reincarnation, but i’ll get into that later. How many people do you suppose die every day, worldwide?”

“I read once that two people die each second.” Logan answered. “Multiplying that by

86,400 seconds we have in an entire day… That means an average of 172,800 deaths every day.”

Shrugging, Thomas put his palms up. “It’s figurative chaos ensued.”

“That… does, sound bad, but,” Roman hesitated, “how can we be sure any of this is true?”

“Like I said, I can show you.” The stranger let out another sigh. “It’s just not a pleasant process.”

There was a moment of silence that dragged out.

“I’ll go through it then.” Roman broke it. “Lay it one me, Thomas Edison.”

“That’s not-” Thomas shrugged. “Fine, i am really sorry for what follows.”

In a minute, his thumb was on Roman’s forehead, pressing down hard. The headache conquered him, and he soon passed out.

Roman woke up to a dreamlike haze that moved around him. As he walked, the mist followed. The scenery around him was filled with ashes, smoke and fire. He found that none affected him as he would’ve expected.

He walked on ruins, saw what he deemed to be houses tumbling down and taking people with them. He watched as everything fell apart in the line he made as he paced forward.

Reaching a cliff, Roman turned back to the town. It was all burnt and dark. The sky was populated enough that it seemed to be night when Roman could still make out the sun behind a curtain of some if he squinted his eyes hard enough. Nothing remained but ruins of what once was a place where people lived and loved and laughed.

“This happened,” A man walked towards him, “so so long ago.”

“Where am I?” Roman questioned, meeting the man halfway. “And who are you?”

“I’m Taurus.” He pointed his hand to the ruins. “And this is my old city, with a name you’ve probably never heard before and never will. Evimería was prosperity turned to remnants.”

Shivers travelled down Roman’s spine. “Wh-What happened?”

“Souls were corrupted.” Taurus started passing around him. “Twelve major cities were destroyed and one survivor was left from each.”

“The Zodiacs.” Roman assumed. “But Thomas told us you were all brother?”

“We are.” The man nodded. “Mother wasn’t able to handle all of us, even with Father to help. She told me travellers offered to take them to their homeland and treat them as their own. She gave them away. I did not meet my brothers until we were all fully grown adults.”

“Wasn’t that like… fifteen years old in ancient times?” The question left Roman as quick as it had come to his head.

“Why, yes.” Taurus did a gesture that resembled shrugging but not quite exactly. “Our youths were very short.”

Roman pondered over that for a minute. Taurus lost his parents, hometown and everything else that he’d even known when he was only fifteen years old. That was three years younger than Roman was now. It seemed and most certainly was a monumental loss.

“How did you become the Zodiac?” He asked, making Taurus stop in his tracks. “Who appointed you twelve as the guards of wandering lost souls?”

Taurus smiled faintly, with a nostalgic sort of expression in his eyes. “What a nice title. If I am being completely honest with you, eh-”

“Roman.”

“Roman, we did.” He continued. “Other cities were attacked by people gone mad haunted by corrupted souls and there was no one willing to stop them. People were afraid and we… we were the only ones who could see the souls. We saw them and we could communicate with them. So we made a pact, with blood and tears, quite literally, and… Believe me when I say this, Roman, none of us knew we were making ourselves immortal with our pact. But it happened and here you are now. Thomas, as you called, my current recipient is quite distressed about the chaos happening again. Because as you see in front of you, I had lost everything.”


	7. part seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> disclaimer: Remy narrates this chapter and I had to develop him a lot, so he's not exactly like he is in Thomas' shorts. hope you still enjoy anyway <3

“I’ll go through it then.” One if the boys said, Remy had a hard time trying to figure out which one it was. “Lay it one me, Thomas Edison.”  
  
He knew that the one sitting next to Thomas was Patton, that the Virgil guy left and that one of the other two was named Logan. And that’s about it. Rewinding the conversation in his head, Remy was pretty sure the other guy never said his own name.

“That’s not-” Thomas replied. “Fine, I’m really sorry for what follows.”

“Oh shit.” Jealousy hissed next to Remy.

Both of them knew what would follow. A few grunts, from the nameless guy. And then… hysterics due to him passing out.

“What did you do to Ro?!” Patton exclaimed.

The restaurant wasn’t too packed but a couple of people did face them just after the guy passed out. Nobody actually seemed to care enough to do anything about it.

Remy decided to take a peek himself. Him and Jealousy were sitting in the booth right next to Thomas’s, they were joined by the couches. Remy leaned over them to see the others and Jealousy followed. One of the boys was holding the other as Patton left his seat to… tower over him in concern.

“He is seeing my memories.” The voice that spoke was twisted, not how a average human being tended to sound like.

Never quite forming the entirety of the words but just enough to make you understand what it said, the sensation that voice gave was bone chilling. It felt like it was vibrating inside Remy. And it was deep, powerful and demanding of attention. Remy had heard it before but he didn’t feel accustomed to it at all.

He’d seen this happen when Thomas shared his memories with Jealousy, just two weeks ago. It hadn’t been a pleasant experience and it wasn’t being one now. Later on, Thomas explained to him that it had been Taurus talking. Whatever words that came out of his mouth now, they were all Taurus’s.

“What the-“ The boy who wasn’t Patton stopped himself from cursing.

He proceeded to forcefully open his friend’s eyes to check them. From the expression on his face, Remy imagined the boy wasn’t satisfied with what the found.

“His pupils are very dilated.” He announced. “What is happeni-“

The sentence was cut short when he noticed Remy and Jealousy looming around them. His eyebrows furrowed further and his lips twisted into a perfect, thin line.

“Who are you, what are you doing being audience to whatever is happening to my friend?”

“Hey, friend.” Remy was the one to reply. “Calm down, we’re on your side. We’re two of the other Zodiac’s this guy mentioned.” He set a hand on Thomas’ shoulders, who didn’t do so much as a flinch. “He is in Taurus mode now.”

“Tau-“ He shook his head and Patton kept shaking their friend in a desperate attempt to wake him up. “I do not care. Do you know when my friend is going to wake up?”

“It took him,” Remy pouted and using his thumb to point at Jealousy. “About an hour.”

“Felt more like an entire day.” The boy mumbled.

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve said it before.” Remy waved it off before turning back to Logan. “You’re friend is fine, he’s just diving in Taurus’ memories. I’ve been there too. Quite a scary place, but nothing deadly.” He stopped for a second. “Well, not to us anyway.”

Not Patton raised both eyebrows. “What does that mean?”

“Nah, I wanna let him tell you.” Remy pointed at the unconscious boy. “What’s his name?”

“Roman.” Patton choked out, without looking at who asked. “His name’s Roman.”

“Well, Roman is going to wake up soon.” Remy gave a smile. “Promise. And he’ll tell you all the crazy stuff there is in this big bra-“

He was planning on knock on Thomas’s head but the man snapped his head up. It startled everyone around him, except for Patton who kept trying to make Roman wake up with little success. And he’s continue to have none until Roman was done with the memories.

“Another soul nearby.” Taurus’s voice spoke again.

“What?!” Jealousy hissed. “You told us there were only four.”

“It is not Virgil.” Taurus continued, ignoring the claim. “This is not Libra’s soul. This is Capricorn’s soul.”

“Virgil’s a Sagittarius.” A mumble came from Patton.

By the way he didn’t turn to face anyone, by the way his voice sounded - distant and faint -, you could tell he wasn’t completely paying attention. Remy stared at him for a second, wondering if the boy was okay. It didn’t seem like it.

“Then freaking go and get him already!” Jealousy responded, pushing Thomas to get out of his seat.

“He’s still in Roman’s head, Mr Firehead.” Remy reminded him. “He really can’t do much right now.”

“So what, he loses the other guy he also needs? What even is this?!” Jealousy growls at Remy before turning back to Thomas. “Where is he?”

“The cash register.” Taurus’s voice roared again. “The only person right behind the counter at the moment.”

And indeed, if you looked at the registers, there was only one person there. He had his Mc Donald’s hat covering most of his face as he took a person’s order, none of them could see what he looked like. But Remy trusted Taurus’… instincts? was that the word? He had no idea but he had seen him tracking down Jealousy and now these four. So if he said there was another one… There had to be another one.

Jealousy took this without questions as well. Standing up, he wiggled his way through the opening between the seat and the table and strode over to the cashier.

Remy’s eyes stuck there for a bit before he heard a gasp. It came from Roman. He had woken up, grabbing Patton’s arm and breathing in deep as if he’d just spent two minutes underwater and was trying to watch his breath again.

Well, that was fast.

And after that, Thomas collapsed. Remy circled their seat and sat down next to him, holding the man up. Meanwhile, Logan and Patton helped Roman sit straight.

“Ro!” Patton threw himself in front of Logan into Roman’s arms when the latter looked less frazzled.

“Come on, padre.” Roman chuckled. “Don’t squeeze too hard.”

“It was quite a scare, Roman.” Logan cleared his throat. “Enlighten us on what happened, please?”

Grinding his teeth, Roman closed his eyes for a second. “Right.” He opened him again. “I saw some heavy stuff. It seemed like something out of a war themed movie. But here’s the bottomline… Thomas’ isn’t delusional. Or lying.”

“COME ON!” Jealousy’s yell stopped any of them from replying. “I need you to come with me.”

Roman’s eyes darted from his friends to Jealousy and then to Remy in front of him, as he saw the boy for the first time. Remy just smiled and wiggled his fingers in a hello sort of gesture.

“Who-“ He shook his head and pointed one finger to each new stranger with both hands at the same time. “Who are those?”

“The other Zodiacs Thomas was telling us about, apparently.” Logan replied. “And there is another one by the register. Hm- what’s his name?”

The question was directed to Remy. He eyed Jealousy for a moment as he yelled some more and rolled his eyes before answering.

“I don’t know.” He shrugs. “He goes by Jealousy.”

“Jealousy?” Logan’s expressions shifts, his eyebrows furrowing and him frowning.

“Yea.” Remy huffed, taking a sip of his drink. “Good ole’ Jelly.”

“And what happened to Thomas?” Patton finally started paying attention to their conversation.

“Energy crash.” Remy shruged yet again. “He’ll be up in about 15 minutes. I hope.”

“Will you just fucking come already?”

“Jelly!” Remy calls after him. “Think you could try and be a little more gentle?”

That earns him a growl, with a threatening side glance as dessert. Remy doesn’t take it seriously and keeps going. “No one is gonna come with us if you keep using that approach.”

“Is it wise to tease him in such way?” Logan inquired. “He seems to have some anger issues.”

A third shrug comes from Remy. “Thomas always keeps him in line.”

“Thomas is currently unconscious.” The boy reminded him.

“Yup.” Was all that Remy said.

“Remy told us the memories you saw were a deadly place.” Logan turned to Roman. “And when I questioned it, he said he wanted you to tell us. What does deadly, in this context, mean, Roman?”

There was an extended sigh from the boy with the answers. He looked considerably more tired since coming inside the restaurant.

“A lot of people died.” Roman stated. “In Taurus’ memories, it’s a dangerous place. I could walk through fire and falling debris didn’t impact me at all but everyone else around me… they all died. Over course, the tragedy occured in the past but still… I think a little bit of my innocence died back there.”

It’s how Remy had felt after seeing those things too. And Jealousy would kill anyone who asked him the same, but Remy was pretty sure it’s how he had felt as well. And speaking of the anger issued devil, Remy catch him just as he was about to jump over the counter to threaten the cashier.

“Eh, you can guys discuss this among yourself, right?” He stands up without waiting for a response and starts walking, raising his voice slightly the farther away he gets. “I’ll be right back!”

“Ei, man.” He grabbed Jealousy’s shoulders. “I’ll take it from here, alright?”

His… companion’s face twisted as his lips and eyes twitched with his reluctant attitude. “Fine.”

Remy watched him as he made his way back to their booth, sitting next to Thomas and menacingly staring down at his own crossed arms. Then, he proceeded to turn to the cashier with his best forced smile.

“I’m sorry for that guy, he has a few problems.” He started. “But I do need you to come with us. There’s just someone that wants to talk to you.”

Tipping his snapback forward, the cashier tried covering his face even more. “Can’t leave my post. Try another time.”

The voice he made was so high pitched and heavily accented with a british accent. It was so unnatural, Remy knew instantly it wasn’t the guy’s real voice.

“Right, right…” Remy pouted and started walking away. Two steps in and he turned around. “Cause see, you’re lying. You’re working at random McDonald’s and trying too hard not to get recognized, for some reason. But I also don’t think you’re not hiding from us, or else I’d be really offended.”

That made him give wince a few times. Remy had nailed his aim.

“So whatever bad thing you did, we’re not here for that.” He continued, pointing at Thomas. “See the sleeping guy over there? That’s who wants to talk to you. We’ll stay here until the end of your shift, whenever that is. Just swing by the table when you’re done.”

Remy resumed his path as he waved a ‘see you later’. But instead of walking back to the table where Thomas was, he took a table closer to the registers. That way, he could actually keep an eye on the cashier. He also motioned to the others for them to sit there with him.

“You think that’s going to work?” Jealousy snarled, sitting across from him.

“It’s a fifty fifty sorta thing.” Remy replied, leaning over the table with his arms and resting his head on them. “I just hope his shift ends soon.”

“It is currently 2:18 pm.” Logan glanced at his wrist watch. “I think he should be out soon.”

“I hope so.” Roman sighed, helping Patton as he held Thomas up on his sit. “I am completely drained.”

Remy elevated his shoulders a little, burying his head in between. “That’s Taurus’s memories for ya.”

-

It was nearly 4 pm when Thomas woke up, and it was only 15 minutes later the cashier did swing by their table.

“What do you want?” He used his normal voice.

Thomas tried to keep a smile, fighting back the urge to just fall back asleep. Reprising the speech he gave to Logan and Roman, Thomas looked as stern as before. But Remy had a feeling that the boy was hoping he wouldn’t need to make the cashier go through the pain of the memories. When he was done, the cashier just stared at Thomas for a while.

“Sounds believable.” He finally said.

“Seriously?” Logan asked, scratching the side of his temple.

“Yeah.” The boy answer, matter-of-factly.

“No questions?” Roman insisted.

“Nah, I’m good.” He shrugged quickly. “So what now?”

“Oh well…” Thomas let out a breath of relief. “I need you guys to tag along with me as I tracked down the rest of us.”

“Hey, calm down there for a moment!” Roman interjected. “You never told us we were going on a road trip, we have school! And ours familiar, what shall we tell them, huh?”

“Yes, we have classes to attend to. And I would rather not leave my parents without notice.” Logan nodded. “I do not think this will work.”

“I’m down for whatever.” The new guy added.

“Get over your goddamn selves.” Jealousy chimed in. “You won’t have a fucking school or families to go back to if chaos wins.”

The comment coming from Jealousy was a surprise, at least, to Remy it was. But he was glad he was on board. If even one of the Zodiac refused to help… well then, everything would be doomed.

A throaty grunt slided the silence that had accommodated there. It was Logan’s.

“Explaining all this to Virgil will be… as it’s said, a pain in the ass.”

“Oh…” Roman’s face turned from a angry expression to a panicked one. “I’m not looking forward to that.”

“I’d offer to be there to help but I think that would be a bad idea, with his anxiety, right?” Thomas sighed, and Virgil’s friends nodded. “So I’ll just, talk things over with… sorry, what’s your name?”

The cashier replied. “Shane.”

“Shane, okay. Nice to meet you.” Thomas forced a smile. “I’ll tell you more tomorrow, can you meet me at the motel in-” He recited an address as Shane wrote it on his phone’s notes.

“Sure.”

-

“Shane was pretty easy to convince.” Thomas commented as he rode the elevator with Remy and Jealousy. “Even more than Patton. That’s a relief.”

“How come you didn’t know he was here too?!” Jealousy demanded as they stepped out. “You said there were only four in Florida.”

Opening their room’s door, Thomas flickered the light switch. Next, Remy watched aas he dropped himself on the mattress on the floor. Then, he buried his head on it for a couple minutes.

“Something really wrong is happening.” He spoke after putting his head to the side, facing the wall, with his back to Remy lying on the motel’s bed.. “This reincarnation is all wrong for us. It is not supposed to be this hard!”

“So, we’re all lost and doomed, is that what you’re saying?” Jealousy sat on his side of the bed, kicking off his shoes.

“No.” Thomas sat up. “No, no, no, no. I found seven of you. I will find the other five.” He made a pause. “Are you guys going to sleep now?”

“Pretty soon.” Jealousy lied and turned on his side, meaning that he’d fall asleep in the next couple of minutes.

“Yea.” Remy faced the ceiling. “Today’s been tiring.”

“Very true.” Thomas nodded, before lying down again. “Can you turn of the lights?”

-

In the complete dark, Remy was the last one to fall asleep. Jealousy snorted to his heart’s content and Thomas had stopped shifting in his mattress. The nightstand clock showed it was 2 am and Remy was still wide awake. And in all truthfulness, he hoped he wouldn’t fall asleep so he wouldn’t relieve the memories he saw. But eventually sleep did catch up to him, and he was back inside the war zone.

_“Remy, this is when I set out to find my brothers.” Taurus accompanied Remy as they left Evimería. “I had little knowledge of where they were. All I had to go on was my own face. But once I found Aquarius, finding the others became a little bit easier.” He stops for a second, turning to face Remy. “That is the soul you have, by the way.”_

_“Aquarius?”_

_“Independent, temperamental, slightly aloof and original.” Taurus gaze switched to the horizon as he stared at it longingly. “I am definitely sure that is you, in some ways. Personalities shift a little with each reincarnation.”_

_Remy’s eyes widened but he continued following the man. “Right.”_

_“He was from a city called Sképsi. It translates to thought.” Taurus snickered. “The irony is that Aquarius tended to be reckless and hasty. His town had been destroyed as well and with the most amount of survivors out of the twelve, they started rebuilding it the next day.”_

_The landscape now looked wildly different from Evimería. There was no dust in the wind or on the floor, for starters. There were holes in the passways but a lot of them were already being covered with sand. Most of the torn apart houses were being rebuilt, the model structure already having been set up. Evimería had no one to make it bounce back while Sképsi had half its population._

_“But you said there were only one survivor from each city.” Remy called out._

_“Yes, I misspoke.” Taurus let out a long breathe. “For a while there, I forgot Aquarius’ town. I have never forget it before…”_

_The man made a full stop. His eyebrows slightly furrowed down as he stared down at his feet._

_“My brother gave people hope, mostly.” Taurus shook his head before he continued. “Never letting them give up on their town. I stayed for a while to help with the reconstruction, but eventually, I had to ask Aquarius to come with me. He wasn’t too thrilled but also understood the gravity of the situation. We headed out of town a month later.”_

_When Taurus made another pause, Remy noticed they had left Sképsi too. Now they were standing on a desert._

_“We got lost for a while.” Taurus explained. “Nothing like not knowing where you are and where you should go to get some quality time with the brother you had never met before. Aquarius and I fought a lot back then. And he fought me again when I suggested we made the pact.”_

_“You said you used blood and tears, quite literally.” Remy recalled. “Why did you go through with it?”_

_“It was that or the end of the world.” Taurus gave him a tired beam. “What would you have done?”_


	8. part eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!! Please leave a comment <3

The walk home for Virgil was unnerving. He had to stop himself from going down the ‘what the hell will they have to pass on to me?’ route every five seconds. And he cursed himself for leaving both his phone and earplugs at home before going out.

When he finally got to his house, it was still empty of people. His mom was at work and that’s all he had, in terms of family. So he opened the door, locked it from the inside and ran up to his room. The next few hours consisted on watching Netflix, for him. It was a nice distraction and managed to get his mind off the Thomas guy. 

At least until the doorbell rang, that is.

Virgil sprinted down the stairs to get the door, assuming it was his friends on the other side. As soon as he opened it, someone slammed their body against his, almost throwing both of them to the floor.

“Virgil, I’m so sorry!” Patton’s voice reached Virgil’s ear in milliseconds, as he had his hands wrapped around the boy. “I didn’t mean to trigger anything, I didn’t think and I’m sorry!”

“Pat…” Virgil petted his friend on the back. “It’s okay, buddy. I’m good.”

“Are you?” Logan stepped inside with Roman, who closed the door behind them. “Are the anxiety attacks under control, Virgil?”

A ‘yes’ formed at the back of his throat. But honestly, how could he be so sure now? His friends had some sort of news to give and it did have something to do with Thomas, and he had been enough to trigger an attack.

Correction, the prospection of talking to a stranger had caused the attack, not Thomas himself.

“Yes.” Virgil decided, nodding slowly. “It’s fine. What was it that Thomas wanted to tell you guys?”

The question got a bitter kind of laughter from Roman. Taking a decent look at the boy, Virgil saw the thin lines between his eyebrows, the curling of his lips, the strange way his eyes kept shifting, as if there was something disrupting about to happen. He looked worse than he did yesterday and worse than Virgil himself had felt back then too. 

“I don’t even know where I should start.” Roman huffed, going to on edge of the couch. “Can I?”

“Go big, Princey.” Virgil did the same, sitting down on the other edge as Roman let himself fall on the furniture, his head going on Virgil’s lap.

Logan and Patton circled around them to his on the floor, in front of them. The first had his legs crossed while Patton had his lied out there. The two of them, plus Virgil, waited for Roman to speak.

“Thomas… showed me a couple of things.” Roman started, making Virgil the confused kid in the room.

Logan took it upon himself to start explaining. “He told us about ancient entities, godlike, that reincarnated since the beginning of time. And apparently… we four of the most recent reincarnations.”

“Four?” Virgil questioned.

“There’s twelve.” Patton answered. “As in… the Twelve Zodiac.”

At that, Virgil couldn’t help but smile, laughing. It was so absurd! The Zodiac were either part of astrology or characters from Knights Of The Zodiac.

“I hardly think any of this is true. And how do you, Logan?” He pointed at the boy. “Did he even offer any proof?”

“That’s what he showed me.” Roman turned his head a bit, looking up at Virgil. “He gave me some of his memories.”

“What?” The latter blinked several times. “How is that even possible?”

“Magic.” Roman shrugged. “He just pushed his thumb into my forehead and suddenly I was somewhere else. A city called Evimería, destroyed. Completely, it was madness, Virgil! Chaos ensued, as Thomas said. And I met his soul, Taurus.”

“Well this is news for us as well.” Logan furrowed his eyebrows, questions most likely floating around in his brain. “What did he tell you?”

“They story, basically.” Roman sighed. “How the cities were destroyed, a survivor of each, all of them brothers separated at birth, when they found each other, when they made the pact and became immortal… All of that jazz.”

“Immortal?” Virgil snickered. “This is getting too much. Logan, you are really believing all of this?”

“I was there.” He stressed the second word. “I saw Roman unconscious for a couple of minutes, I saw… Taurus take over Thomas as he sensed another soul nearby. With my own two eyes, Virgil. Evidence in front of me. If there is a man that can speak with that voice, such depth and creepiness to it, such clarity where you think there isn’t… The idea of godlike entities does not seem that much of a stretch to me.”

“Oh, right!” Patton’s head perked up, towards Virgil. “He said you have Libra’s soul.”

“Libra?” Virgil’s nose wrinkled. “I’m Sagittarius....”

“I don’t think the souls go by when you were actually born.” Roman added. “Thomas said they fused before we were actually born.”

Virgil couldn’t find words to say for the next couple of minutes. Opening his mouth and closing it back up, there were just too many questions in his mind as well. 

“I…” He tried for the umptheenth time. “I’m not actually believing any of this, alright? But… what’s the importance for any of this? If we are those godlike souls… What, do we have a mission, a purpose? Why did they make a pact?”

Patton took the lead on this one. Repeating everything Thomas had told him the previous day plus what he told them at the restaurant, Patton tried to include everything he remembered. And in the end, they had to hit him with the worst shot.

“We’re supposed to go with Thomas.” Roman started. “Travel around to find the other Zodiac, and… do something to avoid chaos coming, again.”

That was when Virgil lost it. He shook his head and stared at his friends in disbelief.

“What, we’re just supposed to leave everything here?!” He yelled. “We have families and school!”

“Yes, we told him that.” Logan sighed. “And we forgot to mention there were two other Zodiac there with him, one who goes by Jealousy and… I do not think the other ever gave us his name. We must ask later. Anyhow... Jealousy,” He twisted his lips after naming a person after the emotion. “He had a good point. If chaos does get victorious… we might not have a family or school anymore.”

“How not ominous.” Virgil clicked his tongue. “Are you guys really going?”

“Not if you aren’t.” Patton answered.

“It wouldn’t make a difference if you didn’t go anyway.” Roman added. “Thomas said he needs all twelve of us. He has eight so far, counting himself.”

“So we all go or… we’re doomed?” 

“Pretty much, yes.” Logan sighed.

A moment of silence reigned. The sense of urgency wasn’t tangible for Virgil but it seemed to be for all his friends. He didn’t want to break everything, to mess something up. And going would mean no school for a little while… The only thing he worried about was him mom. She’d freak out even if left a note.

“Okay.” He broke the silence. “I’ll go. This still doesn’t mean I believe in any of this, to be honest.”

“So why are you coming, Virge?” Patton scooched closer to him. 

“We have to do it together, right? Or it’s-” He made a long explosion sound.

It made all in the room but Logan, laugh. The boy wasn’t easily humored. 

“So when do we leave?”

 

-

 

It was the next day.

“I told him to come by at night.” Thomas answered Jealousy’s question about when would the new recruit arrive. “Just giving some time for the others to talk to Virgil.”

“Okay…” Jealousy dragged that on for a while. “And what did you say his name was again?”

Shane just sounded… wrong. Jealousy was pretty sure he’d seen the boy’s badge that day and he saw no Ss or Hs or Ns… Maybe not even As. There had been an Es… But no matter how hard Jealousy tried, he couldn’t remember the name on that badge. He had only caught a glimpse of it, anyway. It’s not like he had thought he would need to confirm the guy’s name.

“Shane.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not the name he wore on the badge.” Jealousy mumbled.

Getting closer, Thomas put a hand on his shoulder, trying to get the boy to look at him. Jealousy did it, but with a lot of hesitancy. 

“What badge?”

“The employee badge.” He answered. “He was wearing one when I talked to him.”

Remy entered the scene as well, leaving the bathroom to join the conversation. “He didn’t have on when I did.”

The kid jumped on the bed, pulling his phone out. Jealousy assumed he was on Tumblr again. As Remy basically removed himself from the conversation that way, Thomas took steps back, grabbing his own phone from his back pockets. Looking down at it, his face fell.

“It’s almost 7.” He spoke, shaking his head. “I don’t think he’s coming.”

“We lost him?!” Jealousy yelled.

Anger was building up inside him, there was a hot ball of rage on his chest. The little prick had lied, he was sure. And now they were another soul short.

There was something that Taurus told him when they’d met in his memories that stuck with Jealousy. It was daunting and haunted him now, everytime anger threatened to take over.

“Chaos can consume you.” He warned. “You are angry and anger causes destruction. Chaos thrives on it. So be careful with how you behave. More than one of my brothers were almost taken by rage and it put everything at risk.”

Sometimes it was easy to let go of that, like when he tried to talk to Shane. And then Remy reminded him, just by telling him to be more gentle. It hadn’t worked all the way until the boy had come and taken control from him.

Now he had to try himself.

“I can track him down again.” Thomas sat on their room’s chair. “Now that I know now his presence feels like, it’ll be easier finding him again. He must’ve not gone too far anyway, right?”

First, he stared at Remy who shrugged, pouting. Then at Jealousy, who was still focused on avoiding to throw a fit of rage. That was interrupted by a knock on their door.

“It must be Patton with the others.” Sighing, Thomas went to open it.

Roman was the first to speak and to step inside. “Tell me we won’t be staying in places like this as we travel. The lobby is the dirtiest thing I have ever seen!”

Thomas laughed at the absurdity of the statement before shaking his head. “Sorry buddy, we can’t afford much more luxury.”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-”

As the boy scream, kneeling on the floor with his chest up and arms wide open, his friends passed right around him so they could close the door.

“Ignore him, he will stop eventually.” Logan warned.

“Got it.” Thomas nodded and stepped towards Virgil but stopped himself.

The anxiety kid noticed this. And he decided to address… not the issue but Thomas himself.

“Hey, man.” He tried, his hand fidgeting with each other.

“Hey, Virgil, look- I really need to apologize for yesterday, I-”

“I’m sick of apologies, to be honest.” Virgil cut him off. And Jealousy admired him for it.

Apologizes did make Jealousy feel in a vulnerable position, whether he was making or receiving them. And he had the balls to tell others to stop apologizing, he liked that Virgil did the same.

“You had no idea I have anxiety, man, it’s fine.” He continued, as Roman composed himself.

“Oookay!” Thomas smiled. “I’m glad things are good. I need to introduce you and the others here.”

Going to the bed, where Remy was lying on, he tapped on the boy’s shoulder. Remy pulled his head up and smiled. “Hello, queens!”

“Queens ? “ Virgil questioned.

“This is Remy.” Thomas introduced, going to where Jealousy was now standing. “And this one… we call him Jealousy.

“Hi.” Was all he said.

“Hey.” The other four said, each with different timing. 

“And I’d like to point out one small probably we ran into just now.” Thomas returned to face the four new kids, taking a minute to resume his speech. “Apparently, Shane is not Shane. And… I doubt very much he is coming.”

“Who… Who’s Shane?” Virgil turned to Logan, who had his mouth open, with his tongue at the edge of his teeth, clearly annoyed.

“He is the other entity Thomas identified at the restaurant.” He replied. “He was supposed meet us all here so we could start our journey.”

“Are you kidding me?” Virgil huffed. “So what now? We can’t all sleep here. Are we just going to search for this Shane guy now? It’s nearly 10 pm.”

“You guys can stay here if you want.” Thomas offered. “Well, not all of you, I need two to go with me. In case he tries to run away again.”

“I’ll go!” Patton offered, putting his hand up in the air like a little kid eager to answer their teacher’s question. 

“I shall go as well!” Roman offered next, dropping the theatrics just a second later to continue his speaking. “I really don’t want to stay here.”

Clasping his hands together, Thomas let his lips break into a smile. “Alright! I’m feeling optimistic guys. I doubt he went far and I have his presence imprinted onto me already. Let’s go!”

The kids said their goodbyes, Patton went for hugs with both Logan and Virgil and then, they were off. Jealousy and Remy were left with the new Zodiac. 

Jealousy wasn’t in a talkative mood, so he kept quiet. Logan tried to ask a few questions about their situation, and Remy took it upon himself to answer the best he could. But Virgil? Virgil seemed interested in none of it.

“But what made you accept to go through Taurus’ memories?” Logan inquired, sat on the bed with the person he asked this to. “I apologize if I assumed wrong, but you do seem like a skeptical individual. Maybe as much as Virgil, he is still in doubt.”

“Well, I didn’t see any memories.” Virgil shrugged. “And you can’t expect me to accept this blindly.”

“And I am not.” Logan clarified. “I am solemnly stating a fact.”

Watching from the chair, and still refusing to speak a world, Jealousy understood Virgil perfectly. He waited for Remy’s reply. It was something he’d wondered himself for a while now. But he’d be damned before starting that time of conversation with any of them.

“Well,” Remy set his phone down. “I had a strange experience right before Thomas showed up.”

Virgil’s head snapped into his direction, his interest peaked. “What experience?”

“There was light inside dark space, like under my bed, you know?” Remy asked, both kids shook their heads. “And there were voices calling my name-”

“Voices?” Virgil leaned in. “H-How did they sound like, did they get any louder?”

“Yeah!” Remy nodded. “They almost felt like they were grabbing me or something.”

“Oh no,” Virgil whispered softly. “No no no no no no no-”

Jealousy knew what was happening, and so did his friend.

“Anxiety attack coming.” Jealousy was the one to announce it.

“I JUST WANT TO GO ONE DAY WITHOUT ONE, JUST ONE DAY!” The anxious kid trembled, his voice wobbling.

“Look at me, Virgil.” Logan demanded, trying to match his eye level. “Look at me!”

It took him a while, but Virgil did. It also seemed like he was forcing himself not to look away.

“Are you hungry?” Logan asked. “Angry? Lonely? Or Tired?”

“T-Tired.” Virgil hissed through his teeth. 

“Okay, so we’ll get you through this part and then I’ll put you to sleep, are we on the same page?” The kid’s response was a barely noticeable nod. But Logan caught it. “Alright now, come on and breathe with me.”

They spent a couple of minutes going through breathing exercises. It worked well enough, and soon, Virgil was asleep.

“It’s really that bad, huh?” Jealousy questioned as Logan stroke his friend’s hair.

“Anxiety can be very debilitating.” He didn’t look either the other boys in the room in the eyes.

“I’m sorry!” Remy started. “It seemed he was triggered by what I said. Did he have a similar experience?”

“I would assume so.” Logan sighed. “But he did not share it with me. Though… I must also assume he did tell Roman. And I myself went through… an odd thing.”

“Yeah?” Remy leaned in, interested in the story.

Logan laughed bitterly before starting. “There was a burning Zodiac wheel on my ceiling. It spinned and looked impossibly bright. But I feel asleep and when I awoke, it was gone. I had ruled it out as a… weirdly realistic nightmare.”

“That’s what a sane person would think.” Jealousy shrugged, remembering his own supernatural experience.

What he saw was the symbol for the Scorpius sign dancing around in his room. It’s why Thomas was saying he had Scorpius soul and that made sense. Jealousy was just… in denial, still. Or at least, getting out of it. 

“So these… they happened for a reason.” Logan nodded to himself. “But what caused them, ourselves? Or rather, the souls we hold inside us? Were they trying to warn us? Was there no simpler way to do that?”

“You…” Jealousy pointed at the mumbling boy. “Are going into territory I really don’t want to get into.”

“Do you not feel curious at all?” Logan questioned, baffled.

“I do.” The boy changed his position on the chair, sitting sideways. “Just not as much as you seem to.”

“He wants nothing more than to just end with this, you can ignore him.” Remy waved him off, turning to Logan. “I’ll debate with you as much as you want, this stuff is interesting! You have a cool theory, tell me more!”

Logan was more than happy to. Shifting on the bed, he faced Remy to expand on his theory. The nerds exchanged their ideas, Logan getting more and more excited as they did so. Jealousy kept out of it, looking through his own phone. When it showed almost one am, a knocking sound filled the room. He stood up first, going to get the door.

Thomas, Roman, Patton and the kid that was probably not Shane stood on the other side. Probably Not Shane had a pained look on his face, due to what seemed like Roman holding his wrists together on his back.

“oHO, violence.” Jealousy smirked.

Logan and Remy jerked their head to the entrance, as Thomas stepped inside with annoyance on his face. “It’s not like that.” He said.

“Then how is it?” Jealousy closed the door as the others stepped in.

“It’s violence.” Probably Not Shane answered nonchalantly. 

“Fine it is, but just because you kept running.” Thomas argued.

“Right, because I want to be around the lunatics who think they’re gods.” PNS rolled his eyes, as Roman let go of him.

With eyes on PNS, Logan spoke. “I take it you didn’t show him your memories.”

“That is hard to do when the resistance is this big.” Thomas sighed, leaning on the wall. “It’s like he’s shielding himself, so I can’t get in. I had the same problem with Jealousy.”

“Oh yeah.” The mentioned boy smirked, proud of himself for that.

“How did you get through to him?” Roman inquired, pointing.

Shaking his head, Thomas filled his cheeks before letting go. “Story for another day. Now I gotta figure out how to get through to this one.”

“Can’t you go into Taurus mode?” Patton suggested, sitting next to the sleeping Virgil. “You know, like you did at the restaurant.”

Thomas pondered over it for a second. “It’s an idea. But I need to get into someone’s head to do that.”

“Why?!” Roman cried out.

“It’s just how it works…” Thomas sighed. “I’m not particularly fond of the idea either, but Taurus mode, as you guys are calling in, is scarce. Taurus is technically dead, remember? I’m getting in touch with a dead person, whose soul is inside of me.”

“Well that’s morbid.” Roman complained.

“Chaos is also morbid, get over it.” Jealousy argued, arms crossing over his chest.

“Use me.” Patton interjected, Roman grabbed his arm in reflex.

“Pat… buddy… think this through. What I saw was hell.” 

“Confirmed.” Remy weighed in.

“How suspenseful…” PNS whispered.

“You shut up.” Jealousy snarled. “You lied to us and yes you didn’t exactly have to tell the truth but I’m not reasonable and you hardly have anything to say that I want to hear.”

“I’ll be good, Ro.” Patton ignored, turning to his friend. “And I don’t want to wake up Virgil.”

“I would appreciate if we could avoid that as well, since he was having an attack a few hours ago.” Logan added.

“See?” Patton told them, pushing both his hands as fists down on his sides. “I refuse to trigger another one of those for him!”

Letting go of his friend’s arm slowly, Roman hesitated but gave in. “Fine. But if you feel anything bad afterwards, you tell us! You better tell us, alright?”

A nod came from Patton. “I will.” 

He moved closer to Thomas, who by the way his eyes were watering, was clearly not happy Patton was the only option. “I’m so sorry, Pat.”

“I’ll be good.” Patton smiled, being brave.

“No.” Thomas argued, putting his thumb on the boy’s forehead. “You won’t.”


End file.
